Radio Free Alice have taken to social media to apologise for calling a popular Usher song “the ugliest duckling of bad songs” while in the triple j Like a Version studio last week.
The Melbourne band covered Usher’s 2010 hit “DJ Got Us Fallin’ in Love” for the popular series, flipping the glossy pop hit into something far grittier and unmistakably their own.
But it was comments made by frontman Noah Learmonth in the interview, where the band spoke about why they chose to cover that song, that went truly viral.
“We’ve always felt that good songs don’t need good covers,” he said. “It’s like, bad songs that need good covers. This song is like the ugliest duckling of bad songs, I think. So we thought it was a fun challenge to see if we could turn it into a swan. If that was physically possible.”
The remarks were quickly met with backlash online, with some calling them “pretentious” and “cringe”, and others critiquing the band for perceived racial undertones. Triple j and Radio Free Alice eventually turned comments off, and later removed the posts from social media. The cover remains on triple j’s YouTube channel – check it out below.
Learmonth has subsequently apologised for the comments, in a Instagram story posted on Thursday (April 17th).
“We’ve taken some time to sit with the response to our Like a Version interview, and we want to address it personally,” he wrote. “We’ve done a lot of reflecting and it’s clear we didn’t consider the hurt our words about Usher’s song could have caused to Black artists and other communities, and for that we are sorry. Our intention was for it to be tongue in cheeck, which isn’t an excuse for misjudging how it would land, particularly as a band of four white Australian males (I grew up in the UK – hence the accent).
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“We now better understand the issues many of you have raised, and we will continue to learn from them,” he continued. “We care a lot about the music we make and the community around it, and we don’t take your criticism lightly. Hope to see you out there soon.”
While in the studio, the band also performed “Rule 31”, which they released in November. Produced with Peter Kapis (Interpol, The National), the song is rife with urgency, possibly a symptom of the narrow window they had to produce it. It’s also symbolic of the breakneck pace the band has moved, and continues to move, up the charts and onto stages worldwide.
In August, they released their third EP, Empty Words. Their previous, Polyester, has racked up over 3 million streams since its release in 2024. It ranked fourth on Rolling Stone AU/NZ‘s Best Australian EPs of 2024. They followed that launch with support slots on The Killers’ Australia tour and a co-headline national run with Big Special.
Their self-titled debut EP was also nominated for Best Independent Punk Album or EP at the 2025 AIR Awards, and the band was among the names in the Readers’ Choice category at the 2025 Rolling Stone AU/NZ Awards.
